Paris, the son of Priam, the king of Troy, abducts Helen, the wife of Menelaus, a Greek Chief. The Greeks, led by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae (in Greece), set sail in a thousand ships and lay siege to Troy. The seige lasts ten years before Troy falls. And before that many a valiant and noble warriors fell in the battlefield. An epic poem in 24 books, The Iliad, takes the Trojan War as its subject, though the Greek warrior Achilles is its primary focus.

After ten years of siege, the City of Troy ultimately falls to the invading Greeks. One by one, the Greek chiefs leave for their homeland. Odysseus (or Ulysses) is one of them. He sets sail with his twelve ships for Ithaca, his kingdom. It turns out to be an epic voyage, perpetually delaying his homecoming. He goes through many adventures on the way, surviving every peril, finally reaching home only to find his wife harassed by many suitors. He kills them all with the help of his son Telemachus.